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Why Do Our Brains Love Fake News? - YouTube
Channel: Above The Noise
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- Hey, hey, come here.
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Do you know that Rupaul claims
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that Trump touched him
inappropriately in the '90s,
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or that Obama signed an executive order
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banning the Pledge of Allegiance
in schools nationwide?
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Okay, we all know that
that was some grade A,
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top shelf, premium, fake news.
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But you knew that, right?
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You're way too smart and
well-informed to fall for that BS.
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But what if falling for fake
news isn't about intelligence
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or how much information you have?
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What if we're hardwired to
believe what we wanna believe,
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regardless of the facts?
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The 2016 presidential election
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saw fake news come out of nowhere.
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A Buzzfeed analysis showed that the top 20
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fake news articles on Facebook generated
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more clicks than the top 20 real articles
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from every major publication combined.
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They were shared millions of times,
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and it's not that we're
just sharing fake news.
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We appear to be believing
the stories, too.
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A recent poll found that people believe
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fake news articles were somewhat
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or very accurate 75% of the time.
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How can we be falling for fake news
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when we have these things?
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We have instant access to more information
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than we've ever had before.
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Debunking misinformation should
be a piece of cake, right?
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Decades of brain research say no.
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Turns out, our brains have other plans,
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a little something called cognitive bias.
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Cognitive bias is defined as
a limitation in our thinking
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that can cause flaws in our judgment.
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It's kind of like an annoying brain glitch
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that can lead us to
make faulty conclusions.
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Fake news often exploits
this and our brains love it,
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even if we're not
conscious of it happening.
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Once we form conclusions,
they're hella hard to change,
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even if we're presented
with facts or evidence
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that directly contradicts
those conclusions.
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So, what exactly is going on in our brains
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to make us think that
fake news is real news?
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Why can't facts change our minds?
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There are many flavors of cognitive bias,
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but one of the most researched
is confirmation bias.
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We seek out information that we believe
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or want to believe is true.
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It is also leads us to
ignore or minimize facts
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that threaten what we believe.
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So here's a study that
explains how it works.
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Back in 2004 during the
Kerry Bush election,
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researchers studied a group of 30 people,
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half Democrat, half Republican.
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Both candidates did what politicians do,
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they flip flopped on the issues.
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Then, the study asked the participants
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to analyze what the candidates said.
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The participants let the candidate
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in their own party off the hook,
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but were super critical of the
candidate in the other party.
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When researchers looked
at their brain scans,
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they found that the area of the
brain responsible for reason
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the dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex, was inactive,
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so people weren't using reason
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when evaluating the candidates they liked,
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but they were using the part of the brain
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that processes emotion,
the orbitofrontal cortex,
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a classic case of confirmation bias,
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and their brains were also rewarding them
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with a rush of dopamine,
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a neurotransmitter that
makes you feel good.
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So, is there an upside
to confirmation bias?
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Well, it could help protect us from ideas
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that may threaten our social
standing in our "tribe."
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Dan Kahan, a law and psychology
professor at Yale University
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calls it identity protective cognition.
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We humans are hypersocial,
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so it's more important
to protect our values
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and our relationships
with family and friends
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than it is to risk losing
that by adopting new beliefs.
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Are you familiar with Tomi Lahren?
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She's a conservative
political commentator.
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- A protest is a peaceful
objection to a grievance.
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A bunch of sore losers occupying a space
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is called a tantrum.
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- [Myles] But recently, she expressed
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her pro-choice view on abortion.
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- Now, I'm pro-choice, and here's why.
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- As a result, members
of her conservative tribe
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turned on her.
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Ouch.
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So, how do we defeat confirmation bias?
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Well, you really can't,
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but our three step plan
can help you get around it.
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Step one is recognize.
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Recognize that you have this
bias in the first place.
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We all do.
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You made it this far in the video,
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so you can check that one off.
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Step two is consider.
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Consider that you may
not really understand
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what you think you understand.
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Researchers call it the
illusion of explanatory depth.
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Let's say I strongly believe
that GMOs are bad for me.
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If someone forces me to explain it,
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I just might realize that
I don't understand it
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as well as I thought I did.
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Now, I might be less
confident in my belief
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and more receptive to
another point of view.
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Step three is research.
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Research and break down
the opposing viewpoint.
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You may realize that your understanding
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of where they're coming
from is a bit too shallow.
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So now you know the perils
of confirmation bias
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and have some tools to beat it.
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Let's try it out.
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Without being a smart ass,
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pick a controversial topic
and use step three on it.
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Don't try to persuade, but
instead use research and facts
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to lay out why the other side
believes what it believes.
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Put your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
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to good use, will you?
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